The Lady and the Knight
by Rainstorm Amaya Arianrhod
Summary: All fairytale comparisons entirely justified, even if the princess prefers to save herself and the knight's half-commoner. AlanII/LianneII, not a oneshot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** My _God_, sometimes I think I'm stupid. This has been sitting around for weeks unposted! _**Read and review, please. :)**_ I like to know whether I've got it right or not. :p

**Disclaimer:** Not mine.

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**01 Ring**

She has a large ring of young noblemen and women who call themselves her friends, and a smaller ring of people who really are her friends- but Alan's a whole ring of his own.

**02 Hero**

"I'm sorry, dear friend, but no," Lianne says for the first time as a young knight kneels before her with a betrothal ring in his hand, and adds to herself _I don't want a husband yet, much less a would-be hero._ She flashes the knight a rather insincere smile. "Please, let's continue friends."

**03 Memory**

Alanna and Thayet well recall how when Lianne was too little to run fast, Alan would stop and wait for her.

**04 Box**

After Aly went, Alan felt boxed in: Lianne opened the box.

**05 Run**

Lianne runs through the Royal Forest, not knowing or caring that her dress is tearing, dirtying, and that tears are running down her face: she got another marriage proposal, and he was so nasty, and he tried to kiss her and his breath stank and she just wants someone to hold her and let her cry...

**06 Hurricane**

Some time later, Lianne doesn't know how much later, it starts to rain, and Lianne's lost. Now she's soaked, too, filthy, bedraggled and hardly a princess. "Lianne!" someone calls, "Lianne?" and Alan rides into view, ducking branches, wearing a thick waterproof hooded cloak. He doesn't raise his eyebrows when he sees her, just dismounts and passes her the cloak. She wraps herself in it, shivering, and Alan sees she's upset and wraps his arms around her too. She shudders, and begins to cry again, standing there in the Royal Forest in her best friend's arms.

**07 Wings**

Lianne wants wings, to fly away from everything, the title, the distinctive looks, the not-really-friends, the assumption that because she's nineteen and a princess she wants to marry. Everything and everyone except Alan. Alan would come too.

**08 Cold**

She can't manage wings, but confiding her wish to get away to her mother- along with telling the tale of Garvey of Runnerspring's proposal, the one that sent her running into the Forest –gets her to Pirate's Swoop, where the sea is cold and the weather's biting and she's free.

**09 Red**

She's got a red sketchbook, a present from Shinko, and she was always pretty good at drawing- at Pirate's Swoop she draws every day.

**10 Drink**

She sips a hot drink, and scowls at her picture of Alan. Why won't it go _right_?

**11 Midnight**

She can't sleep, and wanders the corridors of Pirate's Swoop, a soft blue light bobbing ahead of her; Alan's awake too, sitting by the fire in the library while the wind rattles the window-panes.

**12 Temptation**

She comes and sits near him, extinguishing her blue witch-light with a practised snap of her fingers, and the firelight gilding her solemn face and glinting in her brown eyes makes her look more beautiful than ever, he thinks, and he would kiss her- but she's Lianne, his best friend, and it would be a betrayal of her trust, he thinks.

**13 View**

On a whim, Lianne starts to talk about why she's up so late, kept awake by her own thoughts. "I want to do something useful," she explains, waving her hands for emphasis as she always does, and watches Alan; his listening thoughtful half-smile, his hazel eyes, the fire picking up on the red lights in his strawberry-blond hair.

**14 Music**

He can't carry a tune, only whistle, but Lianne likes to hear him whistle through his teeth as he goes about his tasks, every one done carefully and well.

**15 Silk**

She embroiders a little, designs very different to those most noblewomen do; right now, she's embroidering blue fire, the Conté Gift, and thinking about Alan's suggestion. _You could be a good healer; you have basic training already. Why not go to the school in the desert for a while?_

**16 Cover**

At night, trying to sleep under thick covers to cope with the late autumn weather, Lianne keeps invading his dreams, and Alan has to remember very hard she's just a friend.

**17 Promise**

Aly promised to write, and she does, from the Copper Isles. So does Lianne, from Corus and then from the desert. The fact that Sir Alan receives letters from two women, from two different places, in two different handwritings, causes a certain amount of speculation in Fort Mastiff until Alan informs key gossippers that one lady is his sister, and the other his best friend- and even then it doesn't totally go away.

**18 Dream**

Sometimes, he dreams of Lianne at the Bazhir's school for mages, getting as tanned as he is from his time there, laughing and joking and learning.

**19 Candle**

Lianne knows she's really worked herself much too hard when she can't light a candle, and then she hears Alan's voice telling her off for it.

**20 Talent**

Alan is with the Own, and Lady Keladry, in the north; Lianne at the school, in the desert. Two talents become obvious to everyone: Lianne is really good at organising, and Alan is really good at getting people to do what he says. No-one noticed before, because Lianne wasn't the beautiful princess, and Alan wasn't the boisterous twin.

**21 Silence**

When the other knights and the Own talk about their ladies, Alan doesn't say anything, just sinks into the quiet the others have come to label Alan's 'Gone For Lunch, Back In A Bell's Time' expression.

**22 Journey**

Normally, Lianne likes journeys and travelling, but she positively detests being forced to sit in a carriage instead of riding back to Corus.

**23 Fire**

Alan likes the Bazhir; their customs interest him, especially when they sit round the fire to speak with the Voice, and they accept him, giving him the name Shadow Cat- like his father's name Whisper Man, or his mother's name Burning-Brightly One. (Neither of them knows it, but secretly Kara and Kourrem- still teaching –have called Lianne Little South Star.)

**24 Strength**

Alan is a terrible jouster, but he has the strength and ability with a sword to defeat opponents much taller and broader than him. Every time she watches him do this, in practice or in answer to a challenge, Lianne's heart is in her mouth.

**25 Mask**

At best, Alan is indifferent to parties, and most of the time he outright avoids them, but he enjoys the masquerade, wearing a cat mask and dancing three full dances with Lianne.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Part two. :) Please tell me what you think!

**Disclaimer:** Not mine.

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**26 Ice**

Alan and Lianne have been gone from the palace for slightly more than a year; it is winter now, and Lianne has forgotten how icy the paths near the Rider barracks get. Walking at a brisk pace, she slips and falls, with a sharp yelp as she realises how much her ankle hurts. Gritting her teeth, she probes it with her fingers- not broken, then.

**27 Fall**

Alan, however, has had rather more experience with ice than he cares to think of, and guesses that Lianne has twisted her ankle as soon as he finds her cursing bitterly through her teeth and holding her ankle. Without thinking, he picks her up- she's not that heavy. "The Healers' Wing, I assume?"

**28 Forgotten**

It's not only the winter cold in Corus Lianne has forgotten- it's the way Alan can make her catch her breath with a few short sentences.

**29 Dance**

The duty healer, a young woman Lianne knows with hazel eyes and an amber Gift, scowls as she spots Alan carrying Lianne into the Healers' Wing. "What have you nobles been doing now? Dancing on ice?- oh, hello, Lianne." She casts Alan a rather suspicious look, clearly not recognising him. "Who's your friend?"

**30 Body**

The duty healer orders Alan to take Lianne into a small side room, which she follows them into, and tells him to put Lianne down on the table, which he does, and then tells him to shoo, which he doesn't; instead he waits quietly by the door, the young woman's back to him as she heals the strained muscles. Eventually, she steps back, and Lianne slips gingerly off the table. The duty healer raises her eyebrows at him. "Normally when I tell people to go away, they go. You may walk a little, but keep your weight off that foot for a while," she instructs Lianne. "I imagine Sir Whatsit can help you there."

**31 Sacred**

Lianne can walk, if slowly, so Alan walks with her in the direction of her room, but pauses when they reach the corridors near it; sacred tradition, or at least the tradition of not being eaten alive by gossip, declares that he should go no further.

**32 Farewells**

Lianne sees him stop, and even though she doesn't want gossip, she doesn't want to leave him. But her ankle still throbs a little, and she ought to go to her room. "Bye, then," she says. "See you later." On impulse, she kisses him on the cheek, and then moves away as quickly as she can so he won't see her blush.

**33 World**

She's trying to read a book about some lord's travels across the world, but her fingers keep going to her mouth, remembering how smooth Alan's skin was against her lips.

**34 Formal**

Since they are, for once, all in Corus –excepting Kally and Aly, of course- the Cooper and Conté clans eat privately together, and as usual, Alan and Lianne are seated together. Only Thayet and Alanna notice how formal their conversation is, in comparison to the easy chat and constant private jokes of before.

**35 Fever**

Lianne wakes in the night in tangled sheets as if she'd been tossing and turning in a fever, and, face red though no-one could know of her dreams, turns over to desperately try and sleep again.

**36 Laugh**

Most would laugh if she suggested a riding party into the Royal Forest in this weather; Alan does not, but agrees.

**37 Lies**

Alan is busy telling himself a pack of lies, all about how Lianne's his friend, and the kiss didn't mean a thing, this riding out doesn't mean a thing...

**38 Forever**

Abruptly, he turns to Lianne; they'd dismounted for a moment. "Lianne, you'll always be my friend, always and forever, but-" he pauses, cursing his inarticulacy; Aly would know what ought to be said, or Neal. He gives up on words, steps towards her, and kisses her.

**39 Overwhelmed**

Lianne feels as if she's drowning. Dizzily, she clutches at him, kissing back, and feels his arms go round her. It's snowing, and snowflakes brush her face coldly, getting down her cloak and melting, but she's perfectly warm and happy, because she's with him.

**40 Whisper**

"Love you, Alan," Lianne whispers as they break the kiss.

**41 Wait**

Alan waits a moment to be entirely sure she's said what he thinks she has, and then smiles widely down at her, brushing a snowflake off her cheek. "Love you too."

**42 Talk**

They ride slowly back to the Palace, where a minor panic awaits them –_the princess can't possibly have gone out in this_!- talking all the way, about things like the future and each other and how they've been idiots for so long.

**43 Search**

They return to the Palace proper just as a search party is about to set out. Alan looks profoundly embarrassed, and Lianne says with a frown- "But we haven't been gone long." Alanna catches her son's eye, and points silently to a time-candle. Alan winces. Two whole hours?

**44 Hope**

Alan thinks his mother and father approve, after the wink his father gave him; Lianne certainly hopes they do.

**45 Eclipse**

Thayet's quite another kettle of fish, as far as Alan's concerned. He's sitting with Lianne in the Contés' private sitting room, watching her sketch, when Thayet blocks out the lamplight by standing over him- "You'd better be good to my daughter, young man."

**46 Gravity**

Alan feels almost weightless, in a strange way, and although he manages to behave relatively normally his friends can tell what's happened. "So, when's the wedding?" one teases him, grinning, and Alan stops still, brought back to earth, and glares. For a moment, he looks just like his mother, and the friend backs off.

**47 Highway**

Spring again, and the Cooper clan- minus Alanna, who has to pursue some badly-behaved ogres –goes back to Pirate's Swoop. Lianne rides with them, claiming (mostly truthfully) that Alanna intends to teach her some new healing techniques when she's not busy fighting.

**48 Unknown**

By this point, Alan and Lianne's relationship isn't a secret to anyone, and although a few were disposed to be jealous of one or the other, and some still are, most can't help but approve.

**49 Lock**

Alan likes to keep his most personal feelings locked away; he was always a private person- and Lianne relishes the fact that she knows him better than anyone.

**50 Breathe**

Sometimes when he looks at Lianne, Alan has to remind himself to breathe. He doesn't know that Lianne thinks just the same when she looks at him.


End file.
